ultra DMA

ronboronbo Connecticut
edited February 2006 in Hardware
I am having some trouble burning with my new computer. I went to device manager and saw my optical drives, a liteon SOHD 167T and a NEC ND 355A are set to ultra DMA 2. The motherboard is a MSI K8N Neo 2 platinum. On my old computer the drive are set to ultra DMA 4. The old computer is a Abit KX7 333R. I would think the new computer should be just as fast. This might be why I am having problems. How do I set ultra DMA to 4? There is no option in device manager to set it to 4. Is this something I have to go into bios for? thanks for any help....

Comments

  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    Go to Device Manger and open IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers. Select Properties, select advanced. Under both the primary and secondary select "DMA if possible". This should automatically allow the fastest speed possible for your IDE devices. If they still don't set to what they should be, you can try changing your drives' jumpers to the Cable Select position.

    WHOA, I just reread your post. Optical drives will not perform at Ultra DMA 4, which is ATA 100 speed - most 7200 RPM hard drives. Your CD/DVD drives were not running at Ultra DMA 4/ATA 100 on your old computer. You must be mistaking that reading/setting for a hard drive(s). The fastest P-ATA 7200RPM hard drives, ATA 133 run at a setting of DMA 5.
  • ronboronbo Connecticut
    edited February 2006
    Leonardo, I think you are right. I must have been looking at my hard drives in the old computer. I went into bois on the new computer and the drives are set to auto....
  • roland_dmproland_dmp Oklahoma New
    edited February 2006
    So is my computer a freak of nature then? :cool: My DVD-RW is running at Ultra DMA 4 -Ultra66 mode, and my HDD is running at Ultra DMA 5 - Ultra100 mode.
    DMA4.jpg 115.5K
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    It's either misreading DMA 2 as DMA 4, or there have been significant advancements in optical drives that I am not aware of.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    Is that a Device Manager window, or some type of Nvidia display?
  • roland_dmproland_dmp Oklahoma New
    edited February 2006
    It's a brand new Pioneer DVD-RW, I'll have to read up and see what it's supposed to be running at. And that window is device manager - that's just the name of my IDE ATA controller, I have an nForce2 chipset. It looks funny because I'm running windowblinds.

    EDIT: Indeed it is supposed to run at DMA 4! Here's a cut 'n paste from the specs. "ATAPI PIO Mode 4, Multi word DMA Mode 2 16.6 Mbytes/sec. Ultra DMA mode 4 66.6 MBytes/sec."
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    Leonardo:

    UDMA Mode 2--33MB/second
    There is no UDMA Mode 3.
    UDMA Mode 4--66MB/Sec.
    UDMA Mode 5--100MB/sec.
    UDMA Mode 6--133MB/Sec.

    The modes are numbered after the ATA\ATAPI standard number, and ATA-3 had no speed definitions (It did establish SMART).

    Info courtesy of Scott Mueller's "Upgrading and Repairing PC's", 16th Edition.
  • ronboronbo Connecticut
    edited February 2006
    Ok. so to answer my question, should my dvd player and burner be at ultra DMA 2 or ultra DMA 4?
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    ronbo:

    Depends on how old the oldest of the two is. I would say if they acted and were used as UDMA 4 before, the only thing I can think of to keep them at UDMA 2 is a simple cable requirement to be an 80 conductor cable like the HD on a modern board that might be needed. A 40 conductor cable might slow them down, as modern controllers for IDE CAN tell what cable is in place--try checking the cable and replacing it with an 80 conductor cable if you have a 40-conductor cable in place.
  • roland_dmproland_dmp Oklahoma New
    edited February 2006
    OK, along the same lines here, is my DVD ROM that's running at DMA 2 slowing down my DVD/RW running at DMA 4? (see the pic I attached earlier) Device manager 'shows' that the DVD/RW is running at DMA 4, but I don't trust Microsoft by default. If it is slowing it down, I'm just gonna chunk the POS DVD-ROM - it's about 7 years old anyways.
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